Every Little Thing: Behind The Scenes
by SilverontheRose
Summary: A collection of chapters, vignettes, and scenes that didn't make the cut in my story, 'Every Little Thing'. Reading it first is recommended. I make no claim on Inuyasha or the Avengers, and have received nothing for this fanfiction.
1. California Dreaming

California Dreaming

Or,

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

* * *

A conversation that happened in California after Kagome told Tony the truth about everything. More of an omake than a decent chapter.

* * *

Tony questioned her unrelentingly over the next few days about Inuyasha, trying to find out more about the boy who had her heart. "I'm telling you though, I'm not pulling any punches. If I have to, I'll meet him in Iron Man if he asks to take you out."

She smiled. "Otou-san, I've seen him slice a Centipede Noblewoman in half lengthways with just his claws, and she was as long as three city buses. A metal suit will not impress him."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her disparagement of his suit. "I'll have you know I've cut a battalion of battlesuits in half with my laser."

"But you can only do that once, you said. Inuyasha can create as many thrown blades as he needs using his blood and youki." She turned her nose up just slightly, proud of him.

Tony made a sour face, letting his tongue poke out in disgust. "Ugh, can you say _biohazard_? Bet he can't fly faster than the speed of sound."

Kagome considered it. "No, his brother can fly, but Inuyasha can't yet. He _can_ use the wind to run treetops and glide for good distances, though. It's why he prefers not wearing shoes."

Twitching, he asked, "You're telling me he can run on _top_ of the wind?" At her nod, he got serious, refusing to lose the game. "I built a miniature arc reactor to keep the shrapnel out of my heart while imprisoned deep in the desert."

Kagome sighed, not wanting to disrespect her father, but kinda having fun topping his tales. "His brother put a poison hand through his stomach and out his back, destroying almost all the organs in his abdomen, and he was completely healed from both the poison and injury a week later."

_Top that, can you, Stark?_ Tony did his best to come up with the next brag, but first gained time to think by criticizing her choice of friends. "You need to make some nice girlfriends at school, ones that are only interested in fashion, boys, or shopping. Your friends are _way_ too violent. Of course, I'm the one being hypocritical there, since I survived a hit from Mjollnir."

She hardened her eyes. Apparently, this was a game her father liked. "My friends are perfectly fine, and Inuyasha protects me. He's worked very hard to keep me safe, even fighting and killing the huge, lightning spitting _dragon_ that had inflicted mortal wounds on his father... forcing himself to use his sword instead of his hands to kill, it so he wouldn't be tempted to go full youkai and hurt me or our friends ever again."

"Yeah, well... I saved all of New York by flying an atomic bomb to the other side of space!"

"And almost died doing it, if the news was right." She snapped, upset and worried that he did such a boneheaded thing when he could have released it right before passing through the portal. "Inuyasha could have cut a hole to hell with his sword and taken care of it _without_ almost dying."

He considered her point. "That _was_ a little on the idiotic side, right? And if it had gone wrong, I would never have met you, so I promise to take more care in the future." He turned like he was about to leave the room. "I've fought one-on-one with a demigod."

Kagome smirked, letting him reach the door before she hit him with the rejoinder, "Between the two of us, we've killed two gods and a handful of wanna-bes."

He turned back around quickly, looking at her intensely. "You're making that up! No, wait, I can see by the way you are looking at me, you aren't. C'mon, cut me some slack here, I'm not as young as you!"

She laughed, considering the win hers. "You're _way_ younger than him. He passed his second century a few decades ago, even if you don't count the fifty years spent in stasis."

Tony growled and began to stalk her her. "I'm the adult, I get the last word."

"Youth and beauty gets the last word! And the last brownie in the kitchen!" She slipped past him and took off running towards the kitchen.

"Hey, wait, those are my brownies! I only get to eat them once a year, so keep your grubby paws off! JARVIS, protocol eleven! Protect those brownies!"


	2. Business, Not So Casual

Business, Not So Casual

* * *

One day, Pepper walked out of her office as Kagome almost rudely brushed off a junior executive, one who was commonly touted as a rising star in his division. _That wasn't like her at all..._ "He asking for a date, Kagome?"

She shook her head. "No, he's just persistent. He lies about so much, and even after I told him I knew he was lying, he denied it. Now it seems like its a challenge to get me to believe him."

"He's considered to be very bright and is in line for a major promotion." Pepper squinted at his disappearing form, before going back to her office and motioning for Kagome to follow. After she'd closed the door, she asked, "Is he not as good as he seems?"

Thinking about it while watching Pepper's perpetual motion statuette, she finally said, "He might be great at his job for all I know," Looking up to the older woman, she shrugged. "Some people just can't be truthful, I guess."

Pepper had caught onto the fact that Kagome was excellent at reading people the first day she'd brought her to the office, and now trusted her observations completely. "Hmm. He's scheduled for a presentation later today, can you sit in?"

"Yes. I'll bring my tablet to do my homework on while I listen, if that's okay?" Kagome greatly enjoyed how her homework was all fed into her tablet, thanks to Tony's meddling. It made it so much easier when she didn't have to carry all her books, pencils, and paper around... they were all on the one, very light, purse-sized tablet. Plus she had translation software, dictionaries, reference books, and if all else failed, JARVIS, to help her understand the work.

"That's a good idea. It will either put him off his game, or encourage him to overreach himself." Pepper smiled at Kagome's questioning face. "Wait till you've had a couple of sociology and psychology classes, and you'll understand. Those are imperative classes for serious businessmen, since knowing how people react personally and in groups, and how to read and influence those reactions gives you an edge."

"I think I understand... it's like how I read Inuyasha's body language to know what he was really saying, since the two didn't match." She kept a strict stranglehold on her loneliness without him... and suddenly Pepper covered her face with her hands before looking up again.

"Er, Kagome? Let's not talk about _him_ in the office. I'm so afraid someone is going to see you glowing-"

Kagome looked down, and, yes, she was glowing again. "I guess the excuse that it's because of a visit from a kami or Bodhisattva wouldn't work here."

"Businessmen are the least superstitious people in the world, except when it comes to articles of clothing, so no. Now, here's what we'll be covering..."

~oOo~

As the man in question went over his proposal, Kagome opened a chat with JARVIS. The A.I. hacked the business records of the company he was pushing Pepper to acquire and, on her suggestions, started checking his family records and comparing them to the other business's employee records. _Got you,_ she thought, sending the information she'd found to Pepper and praising JARVIS.

Pepper read her email, and her manner switched to cool and not so personable. "Mr. Carter, this sounds like a wonderful acquisition..." her voice hardened, "but that's all it does. I've seen the current quarterly report and it doesn't match the one you provided. In fact, yours looks very much like one from a year ago."

"Really? My apologies, I must have given the wrong paper to the printers. I have here a copy of the correct report-"

"Can I trust that report," Pepper asked in her pleasant voice, the one she used right before delivering a zing to the idiot who didn't catch on to the falsity in it, "When it's obvious that this is a ploy to get your family out of debt and a failing business off their hands before they lose everything to bankruptcy?"

He paled, swallowing before trying to smooth everything over again. "I'll admit my family has stock-"

"Eighty-one percent of the stock, to be precise." Pepper's lips curved into a predatory smile. "Of which, seventy-seven is currently held by Erik Suna, a bookie to the horse set in Tennessee, until your father's gambling debts are paid. A bit hard for you, since you have your own troubles. JARVIS, please project the so-called evidence Mr. Carter turned over to security two weeks ago, claiming he was being blackmailed."

He really lost the color in his face then, clenching the pen in his hand till it cracked. Pepper put the final nail in his coffin by requesting a letter by his uncle be displayed next to it, the forge obvious. "Building security will be here in a moment to take you to a holding room until the NYPD has the time to come pick you up. Don't worry, we don't want to waste their time, so we'll tell them it isn't an emergency. They'll be here in a few hours, at most."

A shocked young man was conducted out of the room, and the other division heads looked to Pepper. Director of Finance, Harry Langford, asked, "How did you catch that? I've worked with him for weeks, and would have sworn it wasn't in his nature to do something like this."

"I didn't. It was Miss Stark who noticed that he lied too much for an honest up-and-comer, so I had her join us today. Every time she caught one of his tells, she investigated the circumstances he lied about. All the information I presented against him today was gathered by Miss Stark during the meeting."

~oOo~

"Tony, you would have loved seeing her today. She was the only one that caught onto Carter's lies, so today when he introduced plans to acquire a company that was supposedly in the process of manufacturing a paper substitute that would cut their logging needs by forty-two percent, she caught each lie and looked up the facts. Her digging showed a failing company, a non-existent patent, and the fact that Carter's family owned the business, but were losing most their stock to a bookie. The execs love her now."

Tony grinned, looking over to Kagome for a moment. "That's my girl. Maybe she can skip all this schooling and take the position of second-in-command." The glare he got from the both of them made him backtrack and start listing the ivy league universities Kagome might enjoy... two women in a household were definitely trouble for a man!


	3. A Man Called Hope

A Man Called Hope

* * *

He thinks a lot of Yenson these days, as he watches his daughter plan a community with her friends. The linguist could have capitalized on his gift with languages, but instead lived in a remote village in the hot, dry desert, only taking jobs as his family and community needed the money. Yenson had found his happiness in a community like the one Kagome was planning; his riches coming in the form of parents and grandparents, his wife and children, and the extended family that made up the village.

He knows he will never forget the half-hidden pity in Yenson's eyes as the wise man said that without family, he, Tony, had everything... and _nothing_...

He hadn't wanted to acknowledge the wisdom his fellow prisoner possessed, his experience with 'family' being a socialite mother and a father who's interest in anyone with the name _Stark_ was limited to the one who's last name was _Industries_. Turned over to a boarding school as soon as he was old enough, his intellegience was truly more of a curse than anything else, pointing out the darker aspects of the permitted hazing and the many betrayals by so-called friends only interested in the connection to his father.

In fact, it wasn't till he got to MIT that a clown named Rhodie managed to wriggle his way into the cynical knot that was his version of a heart...

He chalks this up to his little bit of remaining innocence, something dealt a death blow by the time he graduated at seventeen. God knows Rhodie has betrayed him more than once in the last couple of years. It's why his only real attachment is to Pepper, who has been with him over ten years without a betrayal... but Kagome's working her way in fairly quickly, though he hates to admit it.

His acquaintance with his daughter has been short and full of drama, and now he tenses whenever he thinks of what she may be like without the excitement of the past few months.

Pepper knows him all too well, and chastises him like a child for his suspicions when she sees him trying to distance himself. The dog-earred guy Kagome's crazy over also looks his way when he starts doubting and and taps his nose, letting him know that his emotions aren't private at the moment. Then Takeo grins like he knows a secret. Who knows, maybe he does.

Takeo, or Inuyasha, as Kagome persists in calling him, is the sole person he knows who has been betrayed more than he has...

Laughter breaks out at the table when Kagome makes a pointed observation about karma making her friend's first child a girl, and an arm slips around his shoulder. Soft lips press a kiss to his neck, just behind his earlobe, and he can't help but shiver. Pepper's the only woman ever to bother with spending time to find the hidden spots that turn him on. He reaches up to hold her hand, and he's blindsided by the vision of a child with his dark hair and Pepper's eyes and his heart _yearns_ for it suddenly. He's rarely given thought to _purposely_ having a child before, but tonight he's not scared to death over the thought.

He'll think of _that _possibility later; for now he wishes his daughter goodnight, reminding her that school is tomorrow... he's surprised he hasn't sprouted white hairs, he's been so fatherly lately.

So now he says what constitutes a prayer for him, as all the youngsters head to their rooms, thanking Yenson, the man who put him on the right track. Everything and nothing has a different meaning now, thanks to a prisoner in a cave who spoke his mind, and was the first to encourage him to become more than what he was. Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, now has everything and _nothing_ is missing. In fact, he's even got a couple of titles more important to him now... genius, of course, will always describe him, and as long as he has money he'll be a philanthropist, but toss the playboy for committed boyfriend and father... or perhaps something else that flows better.

He'll give that thought due consideration... _after_ he spends a couple of hours repaying Pepper for that kiss...

* * *

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This was a one line note on a possible ending, my imagination decided to run with it!


	4. Touchy Subjects

Touchy Subjects

* * *

Tony came back upstairs, feeling like he _should_ have been dipped in butter, after the vigorous way Thor and his mini-self had shucked the broken suit off of him. _Like a crab, indeed._ He saw Kagome waiting up for him, and worry instantly hit him. "Kagome, you should go to bed. It's late and you've been through so much today, you have to be exhausted-"

"Re-aaa-lly..." She drew out, one perfectly arched brow going up.

Thor hurriedly intervened before Tony _really_ insulted his daughter, knowing this much about magicians' pride from his brother, "Tony, that's a grave insult to a powerful being. For one of Lady Kagome's might, a night such as this is less than a scuffle."

Mollified, the brow came down. "Tou-san, I do not tire because of my power, and there was hardly any physical exertion." She mumbled something about hellgates and zombies that only Thor caught.

Amazed, he pushed to hear more. "You fought in the Hell's Gate War? Heimdall enthralled Loki, my friends, and myself with that tale as he watched the battle unfold. An evil sword possessed a dead man and opened the gates of hell onto Earth; the only champions who dared it's might was a small group of young warriors. Father was on the verge of sending one of his elite to seal the breach, until Heimdall told him to trust in them."

"Heimdall watched us?" she questioned, turning red as she remembered how clumsy she'd been.

"I never connected Heimdall's stories to the bow's dreams... He used you all as examples that a good warrior never gives up. The Lady Sif became the warrior she is by living up to you and your female companion's deeds." He came to a terrible realization. "You were their heart, you died... more than once..."

She flushed an even more brilliant scarlet as multiple sets of eyes stared at her. "Eh? Not quite..." she laughed nervously, disliking the attention. "I had my soul stolen multiple times... I was always able to get it back, though."

"The golem maker and the girl who wasn't there tried to take your soul, but you also took a heart-shot to your back."

"You didn't tell me about that..." Tony's eyes got fierce while Pepper forgot about her earlier embarrassment and looked at Thor and Kagome horrified.

"What does he mean, heart-shot? You aren't telling me you were shot. Thor? Tell me it was just a figure of speech. Who would shoot someone like Kagome?"

"They weren't shooting at me... Kaguya reflected my arrow and I took it instead of letting it kill... someone I care for. I was fine-"

"Heimdall knows his anatomy, it pierced your heart," Thor insisted, not letting her hide away. Asgardians did not dismiss their deeds during wartime, they took pride in them, and he was determined to change her disregard for her actions. "Just where it was supposed to hit the one you protected."

She shrugged, "But the celestial robe prevented my death and healed me. I doubt I could have been really hurt anyways, since time stopped."

"Time stopped for everyone but you and those wearing your tokens." Another thought hit him, and he knew he'd have to keep an eye out for her, whether she appreciated it or not. "Kagome, you have walked outside of time, you've been imprisoned in a hell dimension, and later in the void." She shivered at that recollection. "Have you considered that you may yet live outside of time's reach?"

* * *

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This was a serious line in the original plot draft. However, I wound up with so many plotlines to tie up, I axed this one.


End file.
